The Republic of Donbass will hold referendums from 23 to 27 September

1 Republic of Donbass Breaking news. The referendum on joining of the DPR to Russia will be held from 23rd to 27th of September — the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, stated. He submitted such bill to the local parliament — the deputies have already adopted it. Earlier it became known that the head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, signed a referendum law on the same dates. Recently, the Civic Chambers of the DPR and the LPR addressed the heads of both republics with such requests. The same decision was made by the authorities of the Kherson region — the head of the region, Vladimir Saldo, stated. Earlier the representatives of the Public Council asked him to do such action. The initiative was prepared on the proposals and wishes of various organizations, and the locals, in order to protect people from numerous shellings from the Ukrainian forces. The authors of the idea stated that «joining our country will restore the historical justice, and secure the territory of the Kherson region» — end of quote.

2 Ukraine News about the Special Military Operation. The Ukrainian forces tried to capture the town of Krasny Lyman. The pro-Russian forces stopped their attacks — Denis Pushilin, the head of the DPR, reported. Previously he called that area of the special operation to be the most difficult. According to him, the Ukrainian forces switched to artillery shelling of the local settlements. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the Russian forces destroyed the workshops of a tank factory in the city of Nikolaev. The positions of the Ukrainian 59th motorized infantry brigade in the Kherson region were attacked. The Ukrainian forces lost about 100 soldiers and 7 armored vehicles.

3 Russia On 20th of September, the Russian parliament passed immediately, during the 2nd and 3rd readings, a bill that proposes to consider the periods of mobilization, martial law, and wartime to be ’’aggravating circumstances’’ in case of a crime. Amendments were made to the draft law on the possibility of replacing unserved terms with forced labor for the prisoners. Changes are made to the article number 63 of the Criminal Code of Russia, namely «Circumstances that aggravate the punishment». The current rules imply that such circumstances are the conditions of an armed conflict or hostilities.

4 Russia The migration center «Sakharovo» in Moscow will have an infrastructure to assist the Ministry of Defense in enlisting to the military service the citizens of other countries — the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, stated on his blog. On 20th of September, the Russian parliament adopted, during the 2nd and 3rd readings, the amendments to the law on the simplified acquisition of the Russian citizenship — especially for the foreigners who have signed a contract for a service in the Russian forces. According to the current laws, such people need to serve for at least 3 years to obtain the citizenship. The amendments provide for the reduction of the period to only 1 year.

5 Europe The EU Council has officially approved the allocation of a macro-financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of 5 billions of euros. Such statement was posted on the website of the organization. «This aid will complement the other EU support for Ukraine in the defense, customs, humanitarian, and other matters» — the statement explained. The EU finance ministers agreed on the allocation of additional finance to Ukraine on 9th of September, during an informal meeting in Prague. Earlier the head of the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen, stated that since the start of 2022, the EU has sent Ukraine about 10 billions of euros. Back in June, during an EU summit, the EU decided to help Kiev with another 9 billions of euros, of which 1 has been transferred so far.

6 Hungary ’’The EU must stop talking about new sanctions against Russia, which will only escalate the energy crisis in Europe» — the minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary, Peter Szijjártó, stated on the 20th of September. He is currently in New York, at a session of the General UN Assembly. He underlined that the sanctions have now proved beyond any doubt that they are much more painful to Europe than Russia, as they have caused a severe inflation, and skyrocketing energy prices. He stated that his colleagues from the EU countries want to use the discussions at the session of the UN General Assembly to reverse this opinion, and convince everyone of the need to continue the policy of sanctions. «This is a waste of time. Every country in the world is feeling the economic consequences of the sanctions, so we must clearly define our goal as ’’achieve peace in Ukraine» — he explained and added that the consultations at the General Assembly should go in this exact direction. While speaking about the situation at the Zaporozhye NPP — he noted the importance of the efforts of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the people that ensure the safety of the power plant. In this regard he pointed out the need for an early and complete ceasefire in the region.

Constantine Reztsov, specially for the ANNA NEWS